Obama Administration supporters watching in shock and awe as the government’s lawyers stumble their way through Supreme Court testimony on the Affordable Care Act might not have been so surprised if they had listened to some of the law’s opponents. “The tax power argument that entrances my law professor colleagues will not be an issue,” Georgetown University Law Center professor Randy Barnett predicted at the Cato Institute on March 23, 2012. “The Supreme Court has ruled that a tax must be used to raise revenue.”

“The fees charged in Obamacare are what the Court considers penalties.”